Split Ticketing: Report successful routes here

stikiuk

plz plz plz plz help

We are taking our children to see santa @ harrods this coming weekend, we have hotels booked and train tickets going out on fri but are really sruggling to get the tickets home on sun under £100. This is for 2ad and 2 chd with a family rail card. Any ideas plz.

thanks in advance xx

andyd

Mcr to Worcester on 15/01/08. Normal return via Birm is £72 on thetrainline.com

However 2 singles Man to Birm and back is £40 in total and a return tkt Birm to Worc is £8 so a total of £48 for the same journey,a saving of 1/3 on the original cost.

Thanks to MSE for the invaluable info yet again!!

keith4223

Ive tried with limited success to find the cheapest tickets for the above journey. The standard return is 89.30. I managed to get it down to 74.80. Can anyone come up with a better solution?

Mouseman

In the article, Martin gives Huddersfield to Bournemouth at £26, with a young persons railcard. This is my precise journey! Unfortunatley I have never ONCE seen the cheapy singles on offer and I can't find anything even remotely close to £26 splitting the ticket at Manchester Piccadilly! Is his figure based on the super advance single fares, or just splitting the ticket? Post #233 was talking about getting there and back for 20 odd quid but that was using these advance singles. £85 to get home for Christmas is a bit painful on the wallet (for anyone, let alone a student!) so any help will be gratefully received. I've looked in the past at splitting at Sheffield, B'ham, So'ton etc etc but to no avail.
I realise I've left it late (about 10 days) but was given fresh hope after rereading the article and seeing my journey there all cheap and shiny!

alanrowell

keith4223 wrote: »

Ive tried with limited success to find the cheapest tickets for the above journey. The standard return is 89.30. I managed to get it down to 74.80. Can anyone come up with a better solution?

Based on a travel date of 15th January, returning 16th January

Durham to Birmingham (sgl) : £13
Birmingham to Northampton (rtn) : £14.30
Birmingham to Durham (sgl) : £13

Total £40.30

costingbunny_2

Hi

I am hoping to visit Edinburgh from Chesterfield in january but cannot work out the split fare thing at all? can anyone help? I want to go for 3 nights any time between 11th Jan - 21 Jan.
thanks

indierocker85

York to London Kings Cross

Travelled today, not sure if I got lucky with this one as it isn't actually there now. But I took the 10.34 to 12.44 York to London Kings Cross, which already involved a 5 min change at Doncaster.

Now if I paid for a York to London Kings cross (inc Donny Change) for that route it was £73.60
These are same trains for original route ( change was already included)
So I took the 10.34 - 10:57 to Doncaster for £9.60
Then the 11.05 - 12.44 Doncaster to London Kings cross for £32

Saving of £32, unbelievable

indierocker85

costingbunny wrote: »

Hi

I am hoping to visit Edinburgh from Chesterfield in january but cannot work out the split fare thing at all? can anyone help? I want to go for 3 nights any time between 11th Jan - 21 Jan.
thanks

OK, first of all. I did a search for an example of what National Rail say is the cheapest ticket (which is nothing to go by) based on the following route, purely for comparison

£87.50 return as per national rails "cheapest" possible fare!!!! :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

11th January 2008
Depart Chesterfield 10:33
Arrive York 11:42
Depart York 11:54
Arrive Edingburgh 14.24

*All calling points for departing journey*

Chesterfield 10.33
Sheffield 10.54
Doncaster 11.17
York 11.42

York 11.54
Darlington 12.26
Newcastle 12.57
Edinburgh 14.24

Now the way you do it is, you look at all the stations that your train stops at, but please note you are not leaving the train and no change train is required. Your are simply buying two seperate tickets for the same journey. Well in your case three, but anyway.

For example if you were to travel just from Chesterfield to York as above without going on to Edinburgh, the ticket would cost you £19.30 single. But, if you bought a ticket for Chesterfield to Sheffield this costs £3.60. You then buy another ticket Sheffield to York this costs £13.90. Your on the exact same train doing the exact same journey, but buying this way you save £1.80 whilst taking the same journey. It just means that when you depart chesterfield you show the chesterfield to sheffield ticket, then when departing from sheffield towards york you then show the sheffield to york ticket. EASY.

So for the outbound journey my suggestion is buy the following: -

Open single Chesterfield 10.33 - Sheffield 10.54 = £3.60
Open single Sheffield 10:54 - York 11:42 = £13.90

Normally you would do the same for the York to Edinburgh, however it works out substancially cheaper if you buy an advance ticket. Which, must be bought in advanced (duh)
Advanced ticket for York 11:54 - Edinburgh 14:24 = £17 :T:money:a saving of nearly £60

I haven't purchased an Advanced myself in the past however the terms of the ticket as per the website read as follows. To be sure and to make sure you don't miss out I would call National Rail and be sure. To save money don't use the 08457 48 49 50, call 0121 634 2040 and press option 1 for rail enquires.

These tickets are sold subject to availability and must be purchased in advance. Reservations are required for the journey and you must travel on the train shown on your ticket or reservation confirmation. But even so, your onto a winner in any case

Total cost for outbound leg = £34.50:beer:

14th January 2008
Depart Edinburgh 12.00
Arrive York 14.24
Depart York 14.32
Arrive Chesterfield 15.34

Normally we would find out ALL calling points for both trains, however we are going to take advantage of the advanced tickets for the Edinburgh to York section of the journey once again, so there is no further saving other than the advanced ticket.

Edinburgh 12.00 - York 14.24 = £10.65 advanced ticket (Standard Class)
" " " " = £29.20 advanced ticket (First Class)


Also once again we can take advantage of advance ticket buying and for the 14.32 York- 15.34 Chesterfield this time costs......wait for it......£5

Total cost of inbound leg if travelling standard class = £15.65 :T

I hope from the example for the outbound journey between Chesterfield and York that you can now understand how split buying can be advantageous, if not, please say so. :rolleyes:

Now for the savings summary

NATIONAL RAILS PRICE (RETURN) = £87.50
COST FROM DOING THE ABOVE = £50.15

SAVING OF = £37.50
Now that took a while to write, could you buy me a beer with the savings

One things for certain, always be sceptical when something/someone claims to be the cheapest. Hope this helped costingbunny

linda_wall

I purchased a ticket for Woking-Exeter; Exeter-Plymouth for £49.30; had I split the journey at Yeovil Junction the cost would have been £51.40; the full direct fare was £54.00!:rotfl:

alanrowell

For York to edinburgh & back book via the NXEC website to get a 10% discount for their tickets on their trains